Trading firm gets P1.75-B funding

A WORKER stirs heated sugarcane juice at the Raw Brown Sugar Milling Co. Inc. muscovado factory.

All Asian Countertrade Inc. (AACI), a leading sugar and commodities trading firm in the country, has raised P1.75 billion from a series of private debt deals solely managed by China Bank.

In a press statement, China Bank said its investment banking group had acted as the sole issue manager for a series of bilateral corporate notes facilities of AACI that were sealed this September.

The investment banking unit managed a P1-billion corporate notes issuance with China Bank itself as note holder and another P500-million facility with the state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines as comanager and note holder. Another P250 million was raised with BPI Capital as co-manager and BPI as note lender.

AACI will use the money boost to refinance existing loans and for working capital, China Bank said.